"Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski acknowledged a media double standard Monday while covering controversial remarks by South Carolina Democratic Party chairman Dick Harpootlian, who said Indian-American Republican Governor Nikki Haley's opposing candidate needed to defeat her and send her "back to wherever the hell she came from."
"Let me just say, fair enough, that if a Republican did this we'd be covering it like crazy, so we're covering it because it was wrong and those statements were absolutely wrong," Brzezinski said. "I don't care what he meant. He should just say he regrets it."
Co-host Willie Geist agreed, wondering what would happen if the roles were flipped and the Republican Party chairman had made a similar statement about an opposing candidate with Indian heritage.
Frequent "Morning Joe" contributor Mike Barnicle laughed and said, "We would have led with it."
Harpootlian has become infamous for making bottom-of-the-barrel, attention-grabbing remarks about Haley, once comparing her to Eva Braun, Hitler's mistress.
Last month, he predicted Republican congressional candidate Mark Sanford would end up dead "like the folks at the Alamo."
